More on Iran

Despite the worldwide condemnation that greeted his comments last week, it seems that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is only just beginning his campaign to yank his country back into it's 1980s conservatism. Fresh from banning foreign films, and ordering women to tug their veils down lest a wisp of hair be revealed, he has now sacked scores of foreign diplomats, most of whom were fairly recent appointees put into place by the Ahmadinejad's liberal predecessor, Mohammad Khatami.

As the Times reports:

Four of the envoys, the ambassadors to London, Paris, Berlin and the representative to the United Nations in Geneva, were involved in months of delicate mediation between Iran and Europe over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Iranian and Western officials told The Times that they feared the purge was a sign of a further hardening of the provocative foreign policy that has isolated Mr Ahmadinejad’s regime.

One of the most prominent victims of the diplomatic cull is Mohammad Hossein Adeli, the urbane, American-educated Ambassador to London, who has served only for 12 months and is the first Iranian envoy since the Islamic Revolution who speaks fluent English.

Mr Adeli, 52, will be leaving the foreign service in the coming weeks, along with the Iranian envoys to Paris, Berlin, Geneva and Kuala Lumpur. Iran’s ambassadors to Indonesia, Kazakhstan and several Arab states are also believed to be on the hitlist.

“We are expecting Iran to recall more than 20 ambassadors and heads of mission,” a Western diplomat in Tehran told The Times. “Obviously the new Government wants to have its own people and many of these ambassadors were supporters of (the former President) Rafsanjani and were pro-reform.”

Getting rid of the diplomats who had worked to broker a deal between Iran and the EU over nuclear inspections is a bold move that verges on the reckless. Coming in tandem with the President's desire to see Israel "wiped off the map" - whether or not it is interpreted as a threat, or merely a rabble-rousing attempt at distracting from his domestic woes - the level of suspicion now felt by most of the world towards Iran is at breaking point. However, the Times article also does note that MR Ahmadinejad's critics are not limited to foreign powers:

Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, two former reformist presidents, are openly critical of his policies. On Sunday, Mr Khatami accused the new leader of “using fascist values and principles in the name of Islam to criticise liberalism”. Mohammad Atrianfar, a close Rafsanjani ally, yesterday called the sackings a big diplomatic mistake. “The President does not understand that he should proceed with caution,” he said.